Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Jason M. Dew: Cold War Reflections in Travels with Charley: Steinbeck's New Americanist Evaluation of Intra-Imperialist America

Sacvan Bercovitch, and Walter Benn Michaels, concur that the dilemma of American identity remained unresolved throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and subsequently reached an all-time intensity during a period in American history when America needed desperately to make itself distinct from Communist Russia. The problem that the New Americanists identify from this social phenomenon is that everything from the real to the unreal was perceived using a restrictive model of understanding that lauded the virtue of the individual against the evils of totalitarianism. There were strict rules to apply to any analysis, and if anything fell beyond the parameters of the "us"/"them" analytical paradigm, then the item in question was deemed lesser in overall value and summarily dismissed. The cognitive template, collectively speaking, was cemented into the mind of the so-called "true" American by an army of McCarthyists who acted as self-proclaimed thought police for a nation, so it was thought, that was under a constant threat by the Reds. The New Americanists take issue with the fact that this manner of perception is exclusive and simplistic. Basically, the "us'V'them" mentality lends itself to gross generalities and, as such, is unable to provoke deeper insight. Where the New Americanists and Steinbeck intersect is precisely in their repudiation of what is expected as legitimate analysis and consequent celebration of what is garnered either empirically or outside the realm of critical consensus. Like the New Americanists who strive toward criticisms unaffected by the strictures of intraimperialistic thought, Steinbeck combats the dangers of foisted truth. Steinbeck's Travels anticipates a movement critical of the pitfalls of binary logic foregrounded if not exacerbated by the distinctly Cold War crisis in legitimation, thereby making a man once relegated to the artistic attic by literary critics still very much a part of America's reformist vanguard. Not surprisingly, Steinbeck's non-teleological or "is" thinking remains in Travels an integral facet to both his art and, perhaps more importantly, his message. Slicing through the conventions of what should be according to the intra-imperialistic hegemony and getting to what actually is enables Steinbeck to promote, as he deceptively does, the notion of "acceptance-understanding." This understandably idealistic mindset circumvents what Joseph Fontenrose calls "blame 27